


Rose Gold

by corvidkohai



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: 24/7 Dom/Sub Relationship If You Squint, Collars, M/M, Possessive Behavior, Previous Angeal Hewley/Genesis Rhapsodos/Sephiroth/Zack Fair/Cloud Strife
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 08:54:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25966954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corvidkohai/pseuds/corvidkohai
Summary: Cloud Strife woke up in Midgar wearing a rose gold ring around his throat, but didn’t know how it got there. Genesis Rhapsodos, who he meets much later, knows perfectly well how it got there: he’d affixed it himself
Relationships: Genesis Rhapsodos/Cloud Strife
Comments: 10
Kudos: 141





	Rose Gold

Genesis had said he was going to mind his own business. 

He had gotten the job at Seventh Heaven completely unaware. He’d dropped a glass when Cloud had walked in one day. Cloud had looked at him, frowning and unimpressed, but with no recognition. 

“Tifa, who’s the new guy?”

Genesis’s heart was hammering in his throat. 

Tifa sighed and went over to Genesis to help clean the shards. 

“Don’t get starry-eyed over Cloud,” Tifa told him, as if he could do anything but. “He’s not what everyone says, y’know? Just a man.”

“What else would he be?” Genesis said, finally stooping to help. His hands shook as he gathered the glass. 

“The Champion, Hero of Gaia, Planet’s Savior—take your pick. Isn’t that why you dropped the glass?”

Genesis had heard the titles; of course he had. It was impossible not to. People talked about the Savior constantly, about his escapades, about the way he saved them all. He was the hero Genesis had always wanted to be. He was the hero Genesis didn’t deserve to call himself. 

Of course he was. They had always known he would grow to do great things. 

Genesis’s grip tightened on instinct, crushing the shards into his palms. 

The Cloud he had known, clearly this Cloud, had been in his relationship. His partnership with Angeal and Zack and  _ Sephiroth _ , and that had been fine—that had been amazing, at the time. They had loved each other deeply and fully, everyone one of them passing their hearts along to each other in an endless web. 

It had been perfect. They had thought it would be endless. But then things went wrong and they drifted apart, flies breaking free of the web. Until apparently all that had been left was Cloud and Sephiroth. Until it had only been them, and their blades, and what had to be done. 

Genesis’s heart was a sore and scarred thing. He had lost too much, lived through too much. He had never thought he’d find Cloud again. He had never thought Cloud would be the Savior. 

He had never thought Cloud would look at him, blank and uncomprehending, clearly not remembering who he was. 

Did he remember who Sephiroth was, in the end?

“Shit, Genesis, are you okay?”

He fought his way back to present. To Tifa, now cradling his glass-peppered hand. 

He drew it away, to his chest. He looked up at Cloud, now leaning over the bar to watch him, concern in his furrowed brow. 

“Fine. Just thought I saw a ghost, is all.”

—

Cloud, it turned out, did not remember him at all. He didn’t remember Angeal. He barely remembered Zack, and certainly not the depth of what their relationship had been. He absolutely remembered Sephiroth, but only the Sephiroth that had developed after Nibelheim. He remembered Sephiroth cold and callous and cruel. And Sephiroth had always been those things, to a degree, but not to Cloud, never to Cloud. 

He meant to keep his distance. He would do his job. He would let Cloud have his own life. Once, he had promised to be there for Cloud forever. Once, he had fixed a rose-gold ring around his neck, a collar he couldn’t remove without help in his unenhanced form, and Cloud had wept his joy. 

But then Genesis had spat on that promise. He’d left them all, lost in his degradation, and betrayed what that collar had meant.

Cloud had been his, once—all of theirs. Genesis had a duty to care for him, to love him, to watch over him—or he had, once. Now, all he had was the memories, the ones Cloud had apparently lost to the mako. 

The problem was,  _ Cloud _ didn’t want to keep his distance. He didn’t know if it was his subconscious, that he recognized Genesis on some base level, but he kept approaching him, despite how Tifa insisted it wasn’t his normal behavior. 

So Genesis decided he would keep his promise. He would care for him, and love him, and watch over him—from a distance. As a friend. 

Until Cloud did something he never would have, if he was still the man Genesis had known. 

He grabbed him by the lapel and dragged him into leaning over the bar after closing to kiss him. 

“I’m sorry,” Cloud said, almost immediately. He leaned back, but only a breath away, and didn’t let go. His eyes were closed and his brow furrowed. “I’m sorry, I just—I feel this  _ pull _ to you, all the time, and it’s like gravity, I don’t understand it but—I can’t remember ever wanting someone this much.”

Genesis’s breath went still in his chest. Then he reached out, one hand wrapping around the one Cloud had tangled in his blazer, the other taking Cloud’s chin gently. Cloud’s eyes opened, and he looked confused still, almost desperate. 

“Are you sure, Cloud? Is this truly what you want? Because I cannot do half-measures with you. My heart wants you the way flame wants its wick.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“The problem is that I cannot be casual with you. I can’t—I can’t share you.”  _ The men I could share you with are dead.  _ “I want you to say yes the way I want to continue breathing, but if that is too much to ask—tell me, and walk away now. We’ll pretend it never happened.”

Cloud’s breath went still as Genesis spoke. His eyes dilated. 

Genesis wanted to curse, because he knew he shouldn’t have phrased it like that. It was the simple truth, and Cloud needed to know it. He didn’t know how he could have avoided it, but he should have found a way. 

Because Cloud had always ached to belong to someone. To be kept and cared for. To be cherished and loved and held close. To give up his ability to choose into strong hands that would only do what was best for him anyway. He loved few things more than possessive lovers, and while Genesis knew he wouldn’t be able to be anything but, not after losing Cloud and finding him again, he should have known better than to say it outright. 

But he had thought Cloud must have changed. He was a hero, now—a savior. He was a leader. He hadn’t thought he would still ache to be led this way, but the look on his face said he wanted it more than ever. 

“I’m not walking away. I don’t want casual. I want  _ you _ .”

Genesis hesitated. Was this what was best for Cloud? Could he, in good conscience, do this all over again?

Genesis sighed. He leaned away, and Cloud let him. 

“Then you’ll have me. But only if you still feel that way after I tell you the truth.”

—

Cloud hadn’t been angry, that he didn’t explain earlier. He had understood that he was trying to let him live his own life, unbound by old choices. 

He had been hurt. That Genesis didn’t want him enough to reach out and take him the first chance he got. 

Cloud didn’t say this, of course. He took his motorcycle and was gone for weeks. When he got back, he explained why he had felt so betrayed. How Sephiroth, toward the end, hadn’t given him a choice. That he wasn’t used to people who truly wanted him giving him a chance to say no. 

It broke Genesis’s heart to hear. It hurt, but he understood. He explained to Cloud that just because he valued his choice did not mean he didn’t ache for him. It only meant that, if Cloud wanted to give up his choice to him, he had to do so voluntarily. 

Genesis found himself distantly concerned by the urge. Because he was not a dominant, he was a switch. He wasn’t sure he could do this full time, without someone else domming him in turn. It had worked with the five of them, but could he manage with just the two?

He didn’t know, but he had to find out. 

He hadn’t expected, when they first went to bed, to find what he did. 

Cloud took his shirt off, and Genesis felt like he had been suckerpunched. The air certainly flew out of him as if he had. 

Cloud turned to him, confused by the sound. 

“You okay? Gen?”

Genesis approached slowly, reverently. He pressed shaking fingertips to the rose gold ring around Cloud’s throat. 

The day collar they had given him years ago. 

He remembered the ceremony perfectly. He remembered the lead up, them all scrambling with their planning, trying to keep it a secret from Cloud. He remembered the absurd amount of gil they had dropped on the ceremony and collars both. 

Angeal had done the cooking. Sephiroth helped him write the vows. Zack had been in charge of keeping Cloud distracted. Genesis had done the decorating. They had all chosen the collars together: a rose gold band for the day collar, and a cornflower blue padded leather play collar with a matching rose gold ring at the front. 

Cloud hadn’t known it would be such a production. He hadn’t expected lavish food and soft music and floral arrangements. He hadn’t prepared vows, but Genesis wrote them so all he had to say was “I do.” They had each sworn how they would care for him in every way possible before fitting the collar around his neck, knowing he could not take it off alone. 

Cloud had been so happy he wept. They spent longer than expected comforting him, before he frantically kissed them all. 

He hadn’t expected that Cloud might have kept it. 

“I didn’t think you still had it,” Genesis whispered, his eyes never leaving the band. He could see Cloud’s throat work as he swallowed. 

“Did you… did you all give this to me?”

“Yes, we did.” His voice was small and reverential. 

“I… woke up with it. Every time I went to take it off, I just got so  _ sad _ . I cried, every time, and I didn’t know why. I just gave up on taking it off. It was too comforting, I didn’t want to stop wearing it.”

Genesis slid his fingers around the ring to curl around the back of Cloud’s neck. He dipped his head, pressing his brow to Cloud’s. 

“We were with you, all this time. We always will be.  _ I _ always will be.”

Cloud’s breath shook when he let it out. His hands knotted in the front of Genesis’s shirt. 

“That’s all I want. I’ll be with you, too. As long as you’ll have me.”

Genesis laughed, the sound quiet and quivering. 

“Cloud, the world will fall apart before I let you go.”

“I love you.” The room went still and quiet as Genesis’s lungs stilled, so he continued, “I know it’s early, we haven’t even gone to bed yet, but I—“

“I love you too, Cloud. You have my heart—every piece of it that’s left. You always will.”

Genesis raised his hands to cup Cloud’s jaw. He kissed his mouth, tender as he might a rosebud, and then pressed a kiss between his brows. 

On a quiet breath, Genesis said, “You might be mine, Cloud Strife, but I am equally yours. I always have been, and always will be. Until the love consumes everything that I am.”

When Genesis pulled away, he saw Cloud’s eyes full of standing tears. 

“That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”


End file.
